May 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park

Just a quick post to share some layouts from May of last year when we visited Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah.  It was probably the most unique National Park that we visited in Utah. 

BRYCE CANYON NATIONAL PARK HOODOOS - May 10, 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

JOURNALING: We spent a week in Bryce Canyon National Park. We camped just to the North of the park entrance at Ruby's Inn. The weather was chilly, especially at night.
Mon: Drive from Zion to Bryce Canyon - 2 hours
Tue: Navajo Loop Hike - Snowing and cold
Wed: Park road drive to Rainbow Point
Thu: Rim Trail hike - Rain and sleet in afternoon
Fri: Queens Loop and Peek a Boo trail hikes
Sat: Fairyland Loop trail hike
Sun: Red Canyon hike in Dixie National Forrest

SUPPLIES USED: National Parks scrapbooking kit

SERENITY - May 11, 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

JOURNALING: We woke to 32 degrees so Matt headed out for his sunrise shoot of Bryce Amphitheather and Thor's Hammer along. Snowy weather would end our hike early so we went to the visitors center and museum.

SUPPLIES USED: Complete Boy papers from My Minds Eye

NATURAL BEAUTY - May 12, 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

JOURNALING: We woke up to cold and windy weather so we decided to explore the park by car. We drove the main park road from the north entrance to the end at Rainbow Point. we made several stops along the way including this one. Natural Bridge. Elevation 8627

SUPPLIES USED: Complete Boy papers from My Minds Eye

ENJOY THE RIDE - May 12, 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

JOURNALING: We continued our drive out to the farthest south point on the park road, Rainbow Point. Shown here are the beautiful Pink cliffs and the steps of the park.

SUPPLIES USED: Complete Boy papers from My Minds Eye

AMAZING - May 12, 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

JOURNALING: Our next stop of the day was the Fairyland Canyon area of the park. We would return in a couple of days to do the hike down into the canyon.

SUPPLIES USED: Complete Boy papers from My Minds Eye

BRYCE CANYON - May 12, 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

JOURNALING: Our last stop of the day was a short hike to Mossy Cave, located outside the main park entrance.

SUPPLIES USED: Kraft paper by My Minds Eye Life Stories

MAGICAL SUNRISE - May 13, 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

JOURNALING: Matt catches Thor's Hammer at sunrise

SUPPLIES USED: Kraft paper by My Minds Eye Life Stories

ADVENTURE RIM TRAIL - May 13, 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

JOURNALING: We spent the morning hiking the 2.5 mile Rim trail in our down jackets.

SUPPLIES USED: Destinations paper by Colorbok

QUEENS GARDEN TRAIL - May 14, 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

JOURNALING: We started our day by hiking the Queen's Garden trail with its namesake rock formation of Queen Victoria.

SUPPLIES USED: Destinations paper by Colorbok

BRYCE CANYON UTAH - May 14, 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

JOURNALING: We decided to extend our hike by continuing onto the Peekaboo loop trail. It was very quiet and beautiful, however, we were amazed at the snow remaining.

SUPPLIES USED: Boy Scouts paper by K&Co, Sketch by Page Maps

BRYCE CANYON LODGE - May 14, 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

JOURNALING: After our hikes, we stopped for lunch at the lodge. We explored the lodge area and found these great cabins and an old gas station.

SUPPLIES USED: Mirabelle papers by The Paper Studio, Sketch by Cheri O'Neill

FAIRYLAND CANYON GOOD TIMES - May 15, 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

JOURNALING: Our last full day in Bryce. What a great hike to end with.

SUPPLIES USED: Cinnamon Stick by Cloud 9

ESCAPE TO NATURE - May 16, 2010 - Dixie National Forest, Red Canyon, Utah

JOURNALING: We hiked the Pink Ledges and the Birdseye trail at this beautiful park.

SUPPLIES USED: National Park paper kit

May 15, 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park

Matt decided to go for his sunrise shoot, it was 24 degrees and surprise, surprise, I elected not to go.  I started having problems with the water when I got up so I guessed that the water had frozen overnight and turned on the pump to use our internal water tanks instead of the campground hookup.  More on this issue in the next post.

It was another beautiful day so we decided to go for our last big hike in the park.  It was 32 degrees when we started the hike at Fairyland Canyon so we were bundled up with lots of layers that we got to shed during the hike as the day warmed to about 59 degrees.  The hike was beautiful through a canyon that was more lush than the others.  Still not a drop of water in any of the runoff/stream beds, but lots more trees.  We continued the hike from Fairyland Point where we dropped into the canyon and then wove around and in several groupings of hoodoos.  We climbed back out of the canyon at Sunrise Point and then took the Rim trail from Sunrise back to Fairyland to complete the loop.  Overall, the hike was 7.7 miles and almost 1600 feet of elevation gain and loss.  We took lots of pictures so it took us about 4 1/2 hours to complete the whole thing.

 This was a wall of hoodoo's forming as we started our hike.

What a cool tree....

And the view from the other side of the same tree...

What beautiful canyon walls...

Some hoodoo's are short & fat while others are tall & skinny...

Not much soil anywhere for these poor little trees to grow in...

Hoodoo's everywhere...

After two big hikes in two days, our legs were a little sore and we were a bit tired so we went off to Subway for lunch (not many restaurant choices here due to all the tour buses).  We hung out at the RV in the afternoon and evening and tried to figure out what our water problem was.

This is the last day we will spend in Bryce Canyon National Park.  Click HERE for a link to some of our favorite photos from this park so you can see them in larger sizes than what has been here on the blog.

May 14, 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park

I wanted to share a quote that I saw on our first day here on one of the park's signs:

"There are deep caverns and rooms resembling ruins of prisons, castles, churches with their guarded walls, battlements, spires and steeples, niches and recesses, presenting the wildest and most wonderful scene that the eye of man ever beheld, in fact, it is one of the wonders of the world."   T.C. Bailey - Land Survey - 1876

That just about sums up Bryce Canyon National Park and still applies today.  It is truly amazing and I don't think I've ever seen anything like it in all our travels.  In fact, Matt was speaking with a local and said that over 80% of the visitors to Bryce are European because there is nothing like Bryce on their continent. We have noticed lots of French and German speaking travelers here.  Its great to know they enjoy our country as much as we enjoy theirs.

Matt actually decided to stay in the warm RV with me this morning and not do his normal morning sunrise shoot.  It is supposed to be a nicer day so we decided to try our hand at hiking again and hope that we won't get snowed or sleeted on.  We parked at the Sunrise overlook and started hiking down on the Queens Garden trail.  It was a beautiful trail through the Hoodoos. 

Here I am on the trail as we descend into the canyon.  It is still chilly as I'm layered up with shirt, fleece and jacket.

This is the namesake of the trail.  The rock that is said to resemble Queen Victoria is in the one on the left.  It looks like her in a long gown with a crown on top of her head (facing to the left out of the photo).  I kind of think that the small middle hoodoo looks like a dragon head facing away from the queen, but who knows...

 

Another shot of me on the trail.  Getting a little warmer as I'm now only in a long sleeve shirt.  Isn't this a gorgeous trail???

We then decided to lengthen our hike by combining the Peek a Boo trail that goes all the way to Bryce Point and then completing the figure 8 hike by coming back up the Navajo trail to Sunset Point.  Overall, we hiked for 6 miles in about 4 hours and finished around a quarter to one with just over 2,000 feet of ascending and descending. 

This is on the Peek A Boo trail and is called the "Wall of Windows" - Easy to see where it gets its name from - If you can only hike one side of the Peek a Boo loop (its 3 miles in total), you should hike the more spectacular side near the rim.

We had to pass through several tunnels through the rock on the hike.

We also passed through a very snowy patch on the trail - Thank goodness for someone who had shoveled the trail out - Don't think this is gonna melt for a bit.

 

We were both hungry so we decided to make a stop at the Bryce Canyon Lodge for a lunch (a burger sounded great). 

Here is the lodge - Still the original structure (1924) and has never been rebuilt (click the title of this blog for a link to more information on the Lodge)

As we walked from the trail to the lodge, we passed so many cute cabins.  The rustic location and feel was just wonderful.

The burgers at lunch were OK, not as good as dinner the other night, but still nice especially since we had just gotten into the lodge and it started sleeting outside.  We were more than content to rest in the warm lodge and watch the cold wet weather.  As we were walking from the lodge back over to Sunrise Point, we noticed the old abandoned gas station that used to operate in the park. 

The antique gas pumps were really cool. 

We made it back to the RV after braving the sleet that was piling up on the windshield and then decided that the warm RV was waaaay to inviting to venture out again.  Oh well, there is always tomorrow to explore some more.

May 13, 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park

It was chilly again as we woke up.  Every day has been either right at freezing or below.  Thank goodness for our 4 season trailer and our little space heaters. 

Matt started out his day with a sunrise shoot of Thor's Hammer just off the Navajo trail.  Isn't his sun flair gorgeous???  He is so talented with his camera and being able to capture the magic of this place.

We hiked the Rim Trail 2.5 miles from Bryce Point to Sunrise Point taking lots of opportunities for photos and stops along the way.  It was a beautiful walk down the Rim overlooking the Bryce Amphitheater. We started and finished the hike all bundled up in our down jackets, hats and lots of layers.  If you visit Bryce, the Rim trail is a must do and is a very easy walk with wide paths and only small elevation changes (generally down if you hike from Bryce Point).

Here we enjoy the view of the beautiful amphitheater.

As with most days, the afternoon brought rain and sleet so we decided to stay in (warm & dry) in the RV. 

May 12, 2010 Bryce Canyon National Park

We woke to very chilly and windy conditions today.  As Matt left for his sunrise photo session at Inspiration Point, the temperature was around 30 degrees here at the RV.  The weather forecast was still calling for snow so we decided not to try to hike today, but to explore the road system of the park and all the scenic overlooks.

We drove from the North (main) entrance all the way up to the highest point in the park, Rainbow Point.  We stopped at all the scenic overlooks along the way and enjoyed the views of the beautiful canyons and multi-colored Hoodoo's.  The weather stayed partly cloudy with some snow flurries, but it was amazing how cold it was when you were outside exposed to the wind gusts.

This photo was taken from the Natural Bridge Overlook.

This photo is of the Pink Cliffs.

We then stopped into Fairyland Canyon on our way out of the main entrance.

After our drive, we decided to exit the park's main entrance and explore the Mossy Cave area.  It is located outside of the main area of the park but it was a great .4 mile walk up to a hanging cave (still with snow & ice) and a very cute little waterfall. 

After we finished exploring, we stopped by the Ruby's Inn General Store to pick up a few supplies.  We were pretty impressed with the selection and although the prices were a bit higher than normal, they were not to bad.  Since the weather was still yucky, we decided to stay inside for the afternoon and evening to relax.

May 11, 2010 - Bryce Canyon National Park

We woke up to 32 degrees but bright blue skies.  The forecast calls for snow today, Wednesday and Thursday morning but better weather returns for Friday through Sunday.  We will leave here on Monday to make the drive over to Moab's Dead Horse State Park.

This first photo was taken by Matt in his Monday sunset photo session at Sunset Point here in Bryce.

Matt left a little after 6am to do his sunrise shoot while I stayed warm under our down blanket.  He came back to the RV to pick me up about 8:30 and off we went to the Sunset point to start our hike down the Navajo Loop and into the Queen's loop.  It was just starting to spit snow as we left the RV.  Since it was just lightly snowing, we decided to put on our down jackets and start our hike.

We started on the rim of the canyon and hiked down to the floor following some very steep trails and lots of switchbacks.  It continued to snow all the way down the hike and we were only able to do one side of the Navajo Loop as the trail was experiencing some very large rock slides on the other side of the loop.  We finally reached the end of Navajo and were just starting to hike on the Queens trail when it began snowing harder and sticking to the ground a bit.  We decided we had better turn around and go back the way we came.  It was amazing, in 30 minutes, the once hard packed trail had become wet and muddy.  Near the top, the mud caked on our boots in about 2 inches under and all around.  It felt like we were walking with weights on our shoes.  We finally reached the parking lot and had to find some water puddles to get some of the mud off before we could even get in the truck to go home.

After a rest and warm up back at the RV, we decided to go exploring some more.  We left the RV about 4pm to pay a visit to the Visitors Center and Museum and to watch the introduction film there.  The video was informative, but the photography was not very good (although the lightening time lapse was pretty cool).  It was still cold and very windy so we decided to drive out to Bryce Point and Paria View.  We had packed a picnic dinner, but it was so cold and windy that we decided to have dinner at the Bryce Canyon Lodge.  It is a great old building built with the typical dark timber style and the wonderful old wavy glass panes.  It was a great dinner and I would highly recommend a visit there.

Here are a couple of photo's from Matt's sunrise shoot this morning.  This is what is called the Bryce Amphitheatre.  This photo was taken from the Bryce Point Overlook.  The Hoodoo's are amazing structures.

This second photo was taken of Thor's Hammer just after sunrise.  Thor's Hammer is located on the Navajo Loop trail just down from Sunset Point.

May 10, 2010 - Zion National Park to Bryce Canyon National Park (Utah)

Wow, I'm all caught up on blog posts.  Don't hold your breath cause I don't figure it will happen too regularly.

We made the 113 mile drive from Zion to Bryce Canyon National Park today.  We left Zion about 8:30 this morning to beat the majority of the traffic through the tunnel.  Again, we got the tunnel shut down so that we could drive right smack down the middle of it so both the RV and truck would clear it.

We did have our first skirmish between the truck and RV this morning as we left our campground.  Since we have a short bed truck, we have to have what is called a "slider" hitch that allows more sharp turns without the RV hitting the cab of the truck.  To leave the campground, we had it slide back and as we were pulling out of the campground onto the road, we heard this horrible noise as the trailer slide back some more.  We weren't quite sure what it was...  We stopped just before the park entrance to put the hitch back into normal mode and discovered a very nice hole through the tail gate of the truck and the tail gate jammed.  Matt got into the back of the truck and after kicking the tail gate multiple times, finally got it to open.  Well, as with everything else, the RV won!!  The truck now wears a duct tape bandage until we can get it fixed.

The rest of the drive was beautiful and the roads were in great shape.  We got to our campground, Ruby's Inn, just outside of the park entrance and our spot was ready for us even though we were early.  We finally got the thing level and then set off to explore the shuttle service for this park. 

Once inside the park, we rode the shuttle all the way down to the Overlook and then on the way back, got out at Sunset point and walked the mile back to Sunrise point.  A shuttle drive out of the park and we are now relaxing in the RV.

The weather here is quite chilly and windy.  Matt is planning on doing a sunset shot of the hoodoos and is going armed with his down jacket.  They are calling for snow to start here tonight and continue on into tomorrow with several inches possible.  Quite the difference from Zion even though they are so close.  Our elevation here is about 7700 feet.